it is not economically possible to pay everyone a living wage

Walmart has a net income of $20B/year. If they doubled that (not possible) and distributed it evenly to the 2.3M employees then each would get $17,391 (after tax $11,000) or $420 (after tax $264)/month for the whole year.<br><br>Target has a net income of $2.8B/year and 360,000 employees. If they doubled that and distributed it evenly then each would get $15,556 (after tax $9,800) or $378 (after tax $241)/month for the whole year.<br><br>Starbucks has a net income of $4.2B/year and 330,000 employees. If they doubled that and distributed it evenly then each would get $25,455 (after tax $16,000) or $612 (after tax $384)/month for the whole year.<br><br>McDonald's has a net income of $1.4B/year and 210,000 employees. If they doubled that and distributed it evenly then each would get $13,333 (after tax $8,400) or $325 (after tax $206)/month for the whole year.<br><br>McDonald's makes less than 1% net profit with their restaurants making around 1.5% net profit for an average of 1.25% net profit overall. Trying to give all employees a living wage would require a 3x increase in net income amount (to 3.75%) or a 3x increase in revenue which would require a tripling of the cost of food. If the cost triples then sales will drop which means the employees would still not be making enough. <br><br>The bottom line is that fast food is supposed to be cheap and you cannot pay people "good wages" and have cheap food. A union contract is basically a tax on the shareholders with the employees as the beneficiaries. The CEO and board of directors have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interests of the shareholders. Giving all the employees a massive raise is not in the best interests of the shareholders so it cannot be done without violating that fiduciary responsibility.